Pet animal waste collection apparatus

ABSTRACT

A pet waste collecting apparatus for easily collecting animal solid wastes. The apparatus comprises an upper portion, a lower portion, and a support. The upper portion comprises a canister for storing grocery sacks. The lower portion comprises a pair of hands and a stand. A grocery sack can hang on the pair of hands. The support can be utilized for maintaining the upper and lower portions in an upright position. The pair of hands acts as an extra set of hands while disposing a solid waste of the pet animal. The stand placed on the back of the lower portion can be utilized for holding a scooper device. When the user operates the scooper device with one or both hands, the hands attached to the lower portion can maintain the grocery sack open for facilitating the user to place the picked up waste.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO PROVISIONAL PATENT APPLICATION

This patent application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) ofU.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/488,867 entitled, “Pet AnimalWaste Collection Apparatus,” which was filed on May 23, 2011 and isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments are generally related to animal waste collection devices.Embodiments also relate to the field of animal waste collectionapparatus and method that are utilized in combination with a bag forcollecting solid waste of pet animals such as dog and cat.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Domestic companion animals, particularly dogs and cats, are very popularamong pet owners. However, waste handling is an unpleasant butsignificant aspect of pet ownership. Neglecting the waste handlingresponsibilities can create a smelly, unsanitary atmosphere in anowner's yard. Many types of scoopers for the purpose of waste removalhave been introduced. However, difficulty still exists in transferringthe waste from a scooper or shovel to a waste bag. This difficulty alongwith the unsanitary probability of having to directly use one's hands inthe process of transferring waste into a bag cause a pet owner to dreadand possibly delay the task of waste removal from their yards causing anunpleasant and unhealthy atmosphere for owners and their neighbors. Thetask of transferring waste from a conventional scooper to a bag would begreatly facilitated if there were somewhere to place the bag in such away that the bag would be held open for the pet owner so they wouldn'thave to use their own hands directly to keep the bag open while placingthe waste into the bag.

The problem of the collection and disposal of animal waste deposits andparticularly those from pet dogs has come under increasing publicscrutiny in recent years. Over the last several decades, more and moresuburban neighborhoods with smaller lots and yards in closer vicinityhave become prevalent and as a result the effects of neighboringanimals, particularly dogs, can and has become increasingly offensive toneighbors. Dog waste accumulation can attract mice and parasites. Beyondoffending and being a nuisance to neighborhoods, the improper disposalof pet waste or neglecting the task of pet waste disposal completely,leads to many issues. Pet waste is a health risk to wildlife and people,especially children as it is full of bacteria that can cause sickness.When it rains, harmful bacteria are transferred through pet waste pickedup in storm water runoff washing into lakes, streams, rivers, and marinewaters. There are a host of several issues for aquatic life as well ashuman life. It is for these concerns that several cities have passedlaws requiring pet owners to clean up wastes deposited by their petswith violators being subject to a substantial fine. Facilitation of petwaste removal is key in promoting and encouraging proper and frequentdisposal of harmful waste.

In an effort to alleviate the above problem and to comply with clean uplaws, various devices and techniques have been proposed for collectingand disposing of animal wastes. The device most commonly used by dogowners is a small shovel or scoop for picking up the wastes from theiryards and transferring them into a disposable bag. It is thetransferring of the waste into a disposal bag that poses some unpleasanthandling. Alleviating the hassles and the possibility of human handscoming in direct contact with the pet waste during this step oftransferring the waste would promote and encourage proper and frequentdisposal of harmful waste. This is significant in creating a healthfulpet waste management atmosphere for a pet owner's yard, theneighborhood, the city, and beyond.

Neighborhood resident associations, community organizations, andsometimes even local city authorities intervene to make sure that petwaste removal is occurring if an appeared lack of disposal creates anuisance. The pet owner is responsible to make sure that a nuisance doesnot occur. In addition to being unpleasant, the task can be especiallycumbersome for a pet owner who is trying to hold open a bag with onehand while simultaneously attempting to place the waste from the pooperscooper being held by the other hand. Often this results in pet wastefalling outside of the bag or making contact with the owner's hand. Bothof which makes pet waste removal an undesirable and often neglected taskwhich then can result in the above mentioned nuisance. The waste pick-upfacilitator device should be conveniently located and simple to operate.Waste removal practices that require simultaneous use of both handspresents a problem with respect to sanitary pet disposal. If the wastepick-up practice requires two hands to hold the disposable bag open formore sanitary use makes waste pick-up and removal impossible unless twopeople are working together. The is most often not the case andtherefore the pet owner is forced to use one hand to hold a disposablebag open while balancing the waste and scooper while “aiming” andhopefully placing all waste in the bag without direct human contact.This is a nearly impossible task and is undesirable as direct humancontact with pet waste will most likely always occur. In an effort toaddress the foregoing difficulties, it is believed that the petcollection apparatus with hands for holding a disposable bag asdiscussed herein can address many of the problems with traditional petwaste collection devices.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The following summary is provided to facilitate an understanding of someof the innovative features unique to the disclosed embodiment and is notintended to be a full description. A full appreciation of the variousaspects of the embodiments disclosed herein can be gained by taking theentire specification, claims, drawings, and abstract as a whole.

It is, therefore, one aspect of the disclosed embodiments to provide foran animal waste collection device.

It is a further aspect of the present invention to provide for an animalwaste collection apparatus and method that are utilized in combinationwith a bag for collecting solid waste of pet animals such as a dog andcat.

The aforementioned aspects and other objectives and advantages can nowbe achieved as described herein. An animal waste collection apparatusfor easily collecting the solid wastes of a pet animal is disclosed. Theapparatus comprises of an upper portion, a lower portion, and a support.The upper portion comprises of a canister for storing grocery sacks. Thelower portion comprises of a pair of hands and a stand. A grocery sackfrom the canister can be hung on the pair of hands. The support can beutilized for holding the upper and lower portions upright. The pair ofhands acts as extra hands while placing the solid waste of the petanimal in a grocery sack. The stand placed on the back of the lowerportion can be utilized for storing a standard scooper device.

The scooper device can be utilized for picking up the solid waste andplacing it in the grocery sack. The grocery sack with solid waste isthen disposed in a trash can. When the user operates the scooper devicewith one or both hands, the hands attached to the lower portion can holdthe grocery sack open for facilitating the user to place the pickedwaste easily eliminating direct human contact with pet waste.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying figures, in which like reference numerals refer toidentical or functionally similar elements throughout the separate viewsand which are incorporated in and form a part of the specification,further illustrate the disclosed embodiments and, together with thedetailed description of the invention, serve to explain the principlesof the disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 1 illustrates a front view of a pet waste collection apparatus, inaccordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates a front view of the pet waste collection apparatusdepicted in FIG. 1 with a grocery sack hung on the hands, in accordancewith the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates a backside view of the pet waste collection apparatusdepicted in FIG. 2 showing a canister and a scooper device, inaccordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates a front view of the pet waste collection apparatusdepicted in FIG. 1 showing a scooper device utilized for picking up thepet waste, in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 5 illustrates a side view of a trash can utilized for disposing agrocery sack with pet waste, in accordance with the disclosedembodiments; and

FIG. 6 illustrates a high level flow chart depicting a process ofdisposing the pet waste by utilizing the pet waste collection apparatusdepicted in FIG. 1 in accordance with an alternative embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The particular values and configurations discussed in these non-limitingexamples can be varied and are cited merely to illustrate at least oneembodiment and are not intended to limit the scope thereof. Note that inFIGS. 1-5, identical or similar parts or elements are generallyindicated by identical reference numerals.

The embodiments will now be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which illustrativeembodiments of the invention are shown. The embodiments disclosed hereincan be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed aslimited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodimentsare provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete andwill fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in theart. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout. As used herein, theterm “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of theassociated listed items.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify thepresence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of oneor more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements,components, and/or groups thereof.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientificterms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will befurther understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly useddictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that isconsistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art andwill not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unlessexpressly defined herein.

FIG. 1 illustrates a front view of a pet waste collection apparatus 100,in accordance with the disclosed embodiments. The apparatus 100comprises of an upper portion 105, a lower portion 120, and a support125. The lower portion 120 comprises of a pair of hands 110 and 115which act as extra hands while placing solid waste of the pet animal ina grocery sack (not shown). The support 125 can be utilized for holdingthe upper portion 105 and lower portion 120 upright.

FIG. 2 illustrates a front view of the pet waste collection apparatus100 depicted in FIG. 1 with a grocery sack 205, in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments. A bundle of grocery sacks (not shown) can bestored on a canister 305. A grocery sack 205 can be taken from thecanister 305 and can be hung on the pair of hands 110 and 115. The hands110 and 115 keep the grocery sack 205 open for placing the solid wasteeasily.

FIG. 3 illustrates a backside view of the pet waste collection apparatus100 depicted in FIG. 2 showing the canister 305 and a scooper device320, in accordance with the disclosed embodiments. A stand 310 placed onthe back of the lower portion 120 can be utilized for storing a standardscooper device 320. The apparatus 100 can be of a pet animal shape, forexample, the shape of a puppy and is made of durable, weather resistantmaterials.

FIG. 4 illustrates a front view of the pet waste collection apparatus100 showing the scooper device 320 utilized for picking up the solidwaste 405, in accordance with the disclosed embodiments. The scooperdevice 320 can be utilized for picking up the solid waste 405 andplacing it in the grocery sack 205. FIG. 5 illustrates a side view of atrashcan 500 utilized for disposing the grocery sack 205 with the petanimal waste 405, in accordance with the disclosed embodiments. Afterplacing the animal waste 405 in the grocery sack 205, it can be disposedin the trashcan 500.

FIG. 6 illustrates a high level flow chart 600 depicting the process ofdisposing the pet animal waste collection device in accordance with analternate embodiment. As illustrated at block 605, the grocery sacks canbe stored on the canister, which is placed on the back of the pet wastecollection apparatus 100 depicted in FIG. 1. A grocery sack can be takenout from the canister as depicted at block 610. Then as indicated atblock 615, the grocery sack can be placed or hung on the hands of thepet collection apparatus. The pet animal waste can be picked and placedin the grocery sack using a standard scooper device as depicted at block620. Then, as illustrated at block 625, the grocery sack with the animalwaste can be removed from the hands and finally as depicted at bock 630,the grocery sack can be disposed in the trash can. The hands keep thegrocery sack open allowing the user to easily place the picked up solidwaste into the grocery sack.

Based on the foregoing, it can be appreciated that a number ofembodiments, preferred and alternative, are disclosed herein. Forexample, in one embodiment, a pet waste collection apparatus can beimplemented, which includes an upper portion comprising a canister forstoring a plurality of grocery sacks; a lower portion attached to theupper portion comprising a pair of hands and a stand, wherein the pairof hands maintains at least one grocery sack from among the plurality ofgrocery sacks; and a support for holding upright the upper portion andthe lower portion.

In another embodiment, the pair of hands can act as extra hands fordisposing solid waste of a pet animal. In yet another embodiment, thepair of hands can maintain the at least one grocery sack open forplacement of the solid waste into the at least one grocery sack. Instill another embodiment, the stand can be placed on a back of the lowerportion for storing a scooper device. In yet another embodiment, thescooper device can be utilized for picking up the solid waste andplacing the solid waste in the at least one grocery sack. In still otherembodiments, the at least one grocery sack with the solid waste isdisposable into a trash can. In another embodiment, the pair of handscan maintain the at least one grocery sack open for placement of thesolid waste into the at least one grocery sack and wherein the stand isplaced on a back of the lower portion for storing a scooper device. Instill other embodiments, the at least one grocery sack with the solidwaste is disposable into a trash can.

It will be appreciated that variations of the above disclosed apparatusand other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may bedesirably combined into many other different systems or applications.Also, various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives,modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequentlymade by those skilled in the art which are also intended to beencompassed by the following claims.

1. A pet waste collection apparatus, comprising: an upper portioncomprising a canister for storing a plurality of grocery sacks; a lowerportion attached to said upper portion comprising a pair of hands and astand, wherein said pair of hands maintains at least one grocery sackfrom among said plurality of grocery sacks; and a support for holdingupright said upper portion and said lower portion.
 2. The pet wastecollection apparatus of claim 1 wherein said pair of hands acts as extrahands for disposing solid waste of a pet animal.
 3. The pet wastecollection apparatus of claim 1 wherein said pair of hands maintainssaid at least one grocery sack open for placement of said solid wasteinto said at least one grocery sack.
 4. The pet waste collectionapparatus of claim 1 wherein said stand is placed on a back of saidlower portion for storing a scooper device.
 5. The pet waste collectionapparatus of claim 4 wherein said scooper device is utilized for pickingup said solid waste and placing said solid waste in said at least onegrocery sack.
 6. The pet waste collection apparatus of claim 1 whereinsaid at least one grocery sack with said solid waste is disposable intoa trash can.
 7. The pet waste collection apparatus of claim 1 whereinsaid pair of hands maintains said at least one grocery sack open forplacement of said solid waste into said at least one grocery sack andwherein said stand is placed on a back of said lower portion for storinga scooper device.
 8. The pet waste collection apparatus of claim 7wherein said at as one grocery sack with said solid waste is disposableinto a trash can.
 9. A pet waste collection apparatus, comprising: anupper portion comprising a canister for storing a plurality of grocerysacks; a lower portion attached to said upper portion comprising a pairof hands and a stand, wherein said pair of hands maintains at least onegrocery sack from among said plurality of grocery sacks; and a supportfor holding upright said upper portion and said lower portion, whereinsaid scooper device is utilized for picking up said solid waste andplacing said solid waste in said at least one grocery sack.
 10. The petwaste collection apparatus of claim 9 wherein said pair of hands acts asextra hands for disposing solid waste of a pet animal.
 11. The pet wastecollection apparatus of claim 9 wherein said pair of hands maintainssaid at least one grocery sack open for placement of said solid wasteinto said at least one grocery sack.
 12. The pet waste collectionapparatus of claim 9 wherein said stand is placed on a back of saidlower portion for storing a scooper device.
 13. The pet waste collectionapparatus of claim 9 wherein said at least one grocery sack with saidsolid waste is disposable into a trash can.
 14. The pet waste collectionapparatus of claim 10 wherein said at least one grocery sack with saidsolid waste is disposable into a trash can.
 15. The pet waste collectionapparatus of claim 14 wherein said pair of hands maintains said at leastone grocery sack open for placement of said solid waste into said atleast one grocery sack.
 16. A pet waste collection apparatus,comprising: an upper portion comprising a canister for storing aplurality of grocery sacks; a lower portion attached to said upperportion comprising a pair of hands and a stand, wherein said pair ofhands maintains at least one grocery sack from among said plurality ofgrocery sacks; and a support for holding upright said upper portion andsaid lower portion, wherein said pair of hands acts as extra hands fordisposing solid waste of a pet animal.
 17. The pet waste collectionapparatus of claim 16 wherein said pair of hands maintains said at leastone grocery sack open for placement of said solid waste into said atleast one grocery sack.
 18. The pet waste collection apparatus of claim16 wherein said stand is placed on a back of said lower portion forstoring a scooper device.
 19. The pet waste collection apparatus ofclaim 18 wherein said scooper device is utilized for picking up saidsolid waste and placing said solid waste in said at least one grocerysack.
 20. The pet waste collection apparatus of claim 16 wherein said ateast one grocery sack with said solid waste is disposable into a trashcan.